The last week hasn’t been kind to investors. The S&P500 and Dow officially entered “correction” territory, which signifies a decline of at least 10% from a recent high, after all-time record highs only a couple weeks ago. What’s going on???

The culprit: things were too good! Recent stronger than expected reports on wages and jobs means growth may be “overheating” and that can lead to inflation and rising interest rates. Rising rates equal higher bond yields, which can make bonds more attractive than stocks, and – VOILA! - now traders don’t want to own stocks, many of which have become quite expensive on a valuation perspective from the nine-year Bull run. Then, in this worst-case scenario, stocks go down and that causes consumer confidence to wane which means Joe Investor won’t want to be another 4G TV. Consumer spending slows, corporate earnings suffer, and recession takes place.

Vicious circle, huh? It doesn’t have to be exactly like that. Furthermore, cycles can take a long time to play out – years, not days. In this fast-paced, information at your fingertips society we’re in, we forget that.

Last Friday’s jobs report showed the largest annual increase in wages since 2009. In hindsight, this wasn’t surprising given that 18 states pushed up minimum wages to start 2018. Furthermore, many major corporations, raking it in from the recent tax cuts, have provided one-time Tax Reform-related bonuses to workers. So these government reports, that some traders obsess over, may have been amplified for January and most likely will come down to earth in the ensuing months.

It was just a couple of years ago when many were concerned about DEFLATION and hoped of the day when the Fed could raise rates back to “normalcy”. This schizophrenic market is now focused on the fear of INFLATION. The threat of inflation and higher bond yields - evidenced by the Ten-Year Bond reaching four-year highs yesterday at 2.85% – has some worried. But frankly, a 3% or even 4% Ten-Year Bond environment shouldn’t be so concerning. For the last several decades, the 10-Year was higher than that and could be nice “fresh powder” for a Fed when recessionary times come.

The “buy the dip” mentality that has been so common place the last few years has not shown up this time around, or at least not until today. Some contend that “buy the dip” investors didn’t have enough time as the quants and hedge funds with big volatility-related bets work through the crash in that subsector.

After a very calm 2017 where we didn’t see any stock markets daily moves of over 2%, we’ve already had a few this year. Volatility is back to “normal” – not 2017 normal, but normal when we are comparing to the last 100 years or so. It was only February of 2016 when we had our last correction, which really isn’t that long ago. But complacency is unfortunately an easy characteristic to exhibit after such a long period of subdued volatility. Hopefully it didn’t lead to overconfidence.

So we’re in a correction…what do we do now?

There have been over a dozen market pullbacks of 5% or more since March 2009. This is another one! According to Goldman Sachs Chief Global Equity Strategist Peter Oppenheimer within a January 29 report, “The average bull market ‘correction’ is 13% over four months and takes four months to recover.” Which tells you that generally when the market comes back, it does so relatively quickly, as we've already seen today.

So, it’s a fool’s game to try to time the market and jump in and out of it. No one has a crystal ball. Furthermore, we know that over time that staying invested is your friend. Studies show that just missing a few days of strong returns (which we could very well get next week or later this month), can drastically impact overall performance.

So avoid any emotional mistakes by staying invested and staying disciplined. Don’t be making any short-term knee-jerk reactions; instead think long-term and focus on the things that can be controlled:

§ Create an investment plan to fit your needs and risk tolerance

§ Identify an appropriate asset allocation target mix

§ Structure a well-balanced, diversified portfolio

§ Reduce expenses through low turnover and via passive investments where available

§ Minimize taxes by using asset location, tax loss harvesting, etc.

§ Rebalance on a regular basis, taking advantage of market over-reactions by buying at low points of the market cycle and selling at high points

§ Stay Invested

In closing, a pullback / correction like this one is needed to allow the market to recalibrate. It can be a very healthy event because it may signify that the underlying assets’ valuations are getting back in line with fundamentals. So don’t get anxious over this return of long overdue market volatility. We should all get used to this “new normal” and not let our emotions cause us to take irrational actions that could lower our long-term chances of financial success.

Don’t hesitate to contact us to further discuss your portfolios and your overall wealth management.

Complacency Check: Markets Finally Go Down & the Return of Long Overdue Volatility

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